iOS devs put out a call to unite against Lodsys, other patent trolls

Independent and big-name developers alike are being bullied by patent trolls …

Move over Apple: some independent app developers plan to begin banding together to fight off lawsuits brought by Lodsys and its ilk on their own. On Monday, renowned iOS developer Mike Lee announced the Appsterdam Legal Defense Team, which will be made up of indie developers fighting patent trolls as a single unit and funded by contributions from participating companies. The goal, aside from the obvious one of being free from frivolous patent lawsuits, is to become "the ants of East Texas, minding their business until someone invades their anthill."

Patent licensing firm Lodsys began its assault on third-party developers earlier this year when it began suing them for allegedly infringing on a patent related to in-app purchases under iOS. Since Apple provides developers with the technology to implement in-app purchases, the initial wave of lawsuits came as somewhat of a surprise—why would Lodsys choose to go after small developers instead of Apple itself? As it turns out, Apple already pays for a license for the technology in question through an agreement with the patent's original holder, a company called Intellectual Ventures. Lodsys, however, insisted that the developers should obtain their own licenses, lest they be taken to court.

Apple wasn't pleased with Lodsys' decision to start targeting the little guys and wrote a strongly worded letter to the company in May. Apple Senior Vice President and General Counsel Bruce Sewell argued in the letter that Apple's license to the patent in question covers its third-party developers, and demanded that Lodsys "immediately cease its false assertions that the App Makers’ use of licensed Apple products and services in any way constitute infringement of any Lodsys patent."

Since then, however, it has become clear that the patent firm doesn't care. Lodsys has continued to expand its focus by targeting Android apps and gaming giants such as EA, Rovio, and Atari, while Intellectual Ventures continues to conveniently avoid questions about its relationship to Lodsys. Although a number of developers who were part of Lodsys' initial wave of legal threats appear to have received some level of legal advisement from Apple, none will speak publicly on the matter.

That's where Appsterdam comes in. In a blog post, Lee wrote that the team has obtained the help of intellectual property attorney Michael McCoy, trained in Texas and licensed in California, to help start the Appsterdam Legal Defense Team.

"We will let the patent trolls know: if you attack one indie, you attack all indies, and we will file every motion we can against you, we will attack your patents, and we will show you for the mafioso thugs you are," Lee wrote in the post. "Legal action will be the start of our three-pronged attack. Next we'll take the fight to Washington, raising a wall of legislation against future attacks. Imagine a law that allows small software companies to opt out of the patent system."

No app makers have signed on yet to be represented by McCoy and company, but Lee says that is because the effort was just announced. He expects developers to join the cause in no time, despite Apple's (apparent) willingness to lend some of them a helping hand. That doesn't mean that Lee or the Appsterdam team has anything against Apple; it's just that they think they can move faster, even if they have to pay for it themselves.

"This is bigger than just Apple platforms," Lee told Ars. "Apple has the luxury and history of moving very slowly—they accepted a 60 day discovery, for example. Dozens of app makers could be destroyed by then. There is also good chance Apple can't actually sue Lodsys, since Apple is under contract by Intellectual Ventures and IV probably snuck indemnity in there."

"We're going after Lodsys for sure, but understand the ultimate target is Intellectual Ventures," he added. "They are the Mordor to these trolls."

Lee also emphasized that the banding together of developers to fight Intellectual Ventures and Lodsys is also important for culture, citing a recent This American Life episode called "When Patents Attack" for a concerned layman's background on patent abuse. "If we can set aside our petty differences to defeat a common enemy, maybe we can keep those set aside in the future," he said.

The effort seems ambitious given Lodsys' aggressive campaign, but ambitious is one of Lee's many middle names. Lee told Ars that he plans to have a system ready for developers to contribute to in the next two weeks, and he doesn't think there will be many who won't join up. "I think of it this way," he said. "You have two options: join us, or wait to be next. The purpose of today's announcement is to rally and cheer the community. To give people hope. To get people ready."

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Jacqui Cheng
Jacqui is an Editor at Large at Ars Technica, where she has spent the last eight years writing about Apple culture, gadgets, social networking, privacy, and more. Emailjacqui@arstechnica.com//Twitter@eJacqui